18th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil

The 18th Festival Grand Prize winner was the performance Samba do Crioulo Doido by Luiz de Abreu. As stated by the curator Cristiana Tejo at a ceremony held yesterday, November 10, 2013, the fact that this piece has won “not only reiterates the institution’s transition from an exclusive focus on video to an expanded conception of art, it also fundamentally celebrates and champions an artwork we regard as possessing extreme urgency, both in regard to form—how art can address the audience in a radical, captivating, memorable way—and content—a content which speaks of both a local and a global context.”

The piece has been acknowledged for the ingenious way in which it tackles racial discrimination by focusing on the black human body. The artist uses elements invariably associated with black people in Brazil—samba, Carnival, and eroticism—in a disturbing manner, beginning by assuming a certain conformity or acceptance of said condition, but gradually becoming increasingly ironic and confrontational. In addition to Luiz de Abreu, who will receive a prize in the (gross) value of 70,000 Brazilian reals, ten residency prizes and four honorable mentions have been awarded to other artists. The award jury comprised the curators Cristiana Tejo (Brazil), Koyo Kouoh (Cameroon), Pablo Lafuente (Spain), Yolanda Wood Pujols (Cuba) and Rifky Effendy (Indonesia).

See below the full list of 18th Festival Southern Panoramas competitive show winners: